IBD Editorials

Shutting Down Government For Sequester May Backfire On Obama

By FORD O'CONNELL02/22/2013 04:54 PM ET

First responders arrayed behind him at a press conference. Teachers furloughed from the classroom. Air-traffic controllers furloughed from the control towers. Everything but pay for the troops at risk in the armed forces.

President Obama wants us to taste austerity. He wants us to see what it would be like if our representatives in Congress — and this is all Congress' fault, in his version of events — fail to get back to Washington and avoid the sequester scheduled to take place on March 1.

Can we live with fewer firemen and teachers and more delays at the nation's airports? Can the military make do with less maintenance, delayed purchases and other belt-tightening?

It won't be easy, the president says. It might not even be bearable.

But it's all headed our way, like a big, noisy locomotive, unless Congress gives him what he wants — more tax revenue, more deficit spending, more of the policies that have made ours the brokest country in the history of countries.

Before the president goes too deeply into this strategy, he should take a lesson from his friend Tim Kaine — the former head of the Democratic National Committee and governor of Virginia and now a senator from Virginia.

In 2009, when Kaine was governor, he faced a transportation budget shortfall. He asked for more taxes. The Republican-controlled state House of Representatives refused. So he closed 19 of the state's highway rest areas.

Virginians felt the pain of austerity, but they didn't blame the legislature. They blamed Kaine for picking a fight he couldn't win, mismanaging state finances and invoking an unpopular measure out of spite. And when Republican Bob McDonnell took over in 2010, one of his first acts was to reopen those rest areas.

And yes, it did bring about great relief.

The president has settled on this strategy because he believes Americans won't like austerity when they get a chance to truly experience it.

He believes we have become so addicted to massive federal spending, we won't dare take even one step backward in the name of preserving the country's fiscal well-being for our grandchildren. He believes more taxing and spending will right the ship and that the discussion of how to rein in runaway spending ended with the fiscal cliff deal.

And Obama is betting even if Republicans refuse to give in and raise taxes or otherwise avoid the sequester — remember, the sequester was his idea and the Republican-controlled House twice has passed legislation to help him avoid it, only to be told to "get serious" about reform — he hopes to use this to damage the GOP brand in the 2014 midterms.

So look for the federal equivalent of closing the rest areas — spiteful, small-bore cuts that make a statement about the president's feelings toward his fellow elected officials.

And don't be surprised if it backfires.

According to a recent poll by the Tarrance Group, nearly three in four Americans believe the government spends too much, and nearly four in five believe excessive federal spending holds back the economy. Increasingly, they know the conversation about cutting spending not only is not over but barely has begun.

This is one time when the raw numbers tell a better story than the accounts of Americans allegedly "harmed" by spending cuts.

If triggered, the sequester will reduce federal spending by roughly 2.2% — $85 billion will be cut from a federal spending budget of $3.8 trillion this year, according to ABC News.

And the 10-year cuts will total $1.2 trillion out of a projected spending budget of $47.2 trillion — or less than 3%.

When President Obama trots out his laid-off teachers and firefighters, Republicans need to ask why the federal government was paying their salaries in the first place. When programs begun with one-time stimulus money go by the wayside, Republicans need to explain that it wasn't prudent to start permanent enterprises with temporary money to begin with.

Americans are ready for straight talk. They understand the federal government can't keep borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends. They know no responsible president truly will sacrifice real military readiness for political gain.

They know real reform is coming. They know we can't sustain public debt at the level of 73% of GDP. They know the big three entitlements — Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security — all must be reworked before the bulk of the baby boomers retire.

And they know the president has choices about what gets cut and why and when and how. Obama seems to think he has limitless political capital now. In fact, he is a lame duck to whom neither party owes much in the way of consideration.

The country has prepared itself for sequestration. Republicans should let them see no matter how bad austerity may nor may not be — and less than 3% is hardly real austerity — it beats the alternative.

 O'Connell is the chairman of the CivicForumPAC. A frequent commentator on Fox News, CNN and other broadcast media, he worked on the 2008 McCain-Palin presidential campaign.